Mach was!? (Do something!?) is the title of an old Swabian jazzrock record that pretty much expresses what this blog is about. Its entries talk about the relation between being and becoming, self-actualization and social change. This is how I perceived and questioned reality at each given point in time, not a statement of absolute truth, a call for getting excited, or a reason for feeling criticized personally.
But if you must, you must, of course.

2016-09-23

Derrick Jensen interviewing Darcia Narvaez, Professor of Psychology at
the University of Notre Dame, IN, on child rearing in primitive and
civilized communities, and how the differences affect the moral
development of human beings. To me this is one of the Wow! sources with
regard to the human condition.

2016-09-21

If I was
humanity embodied, the decent thing to do was to shut down
civilization immediately. I'd stop all production except for food,
clothing and electricity. Gas, coal and oil were to be delivered in
quantities just enough to regulate inhouse temperatures and allow for
food preparation. And I'd launch two ten-year clean-up programs.

If I was
humanity embodied, first and foremost there'd be a program for
getting rid of radioactive substances. All bombs capable of leaving
Earth's gravity were to be shot into the Sun. The others would join
all the radiocative fuel rods currently in use, and those discarded.
All nuclear power plants would have to be shut down. Deep holes would
have to be dug into the Earth's crust, in places where plates are
slipping underneath other plates, so that, over extended periods of
time, the material would end up in Earth's interior.

If I was
humanity embodied, the second clean-up were of more general nature,
collecting all the garbage all over the Earth's surface in order to
store it underground as well. We'd deposit the raw material
of diamonds, coal and crude oil of the future, and rebeautify the
landscape.

If I was
humanity embodied, I'd leave a message to posterity, apologizing for
the mess still left.

If I was
humanity embodied, the decent thing to do was to then go into retreat
and think about how to continue from there on – those who'd have
survived the shutdown. Though it is not unlikely that, by then, more
supreme forces than ourselves would have chosen a path for us that'd
look quite similar to the one we'll probably end up on through
bypassing the programs anyway. Only we'd leave the world a better
place.

2016-09-19

"Nowadays we seem to think that
chaos must result where men are not hemmed in by police regulations;
yet we must remember that an enormous proportion of things goes on
without laws. Every day you can see how men make way for each other
in the most crowded streets without our having to have a law about
it. 98% of our life goes on without laws; and some day it will be
possible to get on completely without law and force. But for that man
must be inwardly free." --Rudolf Steiner in, Schiller and Our
Times

With scientists predicting a global
temperature rise of 6 to 10°C within the next ten years it is hard
to imagine humanity is going to get anywhere near the actualization
of those fancy dreams we once had, and still have. Yet I do observe a
somehow schizophrenic split when reading paragraphs like the one
quoted above. They still do speak to me, thrill me. It feels like
these ideas are settled in a different universe where there is no
runaway greenhouse effect and all of our silly science fiction
stories still have a real chance of becoming true.

Both universes belong into the realm of
imagination, though. There is this moment, now, which becomes
enormously more intense with the realization that it cannot be
conserved for long, that things are constantly in flux, and that it
is no wise idea to postpone anything. The time to
live like we always imagined to live is now.

2016-09-17

An activist, in announcing his retreat from publishing, expresses some thoughts I am pondering since quite a few years.

"(1) Remain calm: Nothing is under control; (2) I’ve never suggested giving up — whatever that means — for many reasons; and (3) I’ve offered several paths worthy of pursuit, all within the realm of reason [...]

In short, I’ve given it my best shot. I’ve sacrificed my way of living,
my means of making a living, and — most importantly — relationships
with friends, co-workers, colleagues, and family. Unless I come to the
prompt attention of the well-documented liars within the culture of
insanity commonly referred to as “normal,” I have nothing substantive
left to give [...] I’m left with little to say and little energy
with which to say it. The evidence I present is met by cries of
“impossible” and “cherry picking,” not to mention the terror of the
abyss when I remove all hope. Opinions trump evidence in a
culture gone mad. The populace cannot distinguish evidence from opinion
when the dumbing down has succeeded. And we’re there. Despite the serious blow to my ego, I’m admitting the insignificance of my impact beyond a few, exceptional individuals." [Guy McPherson, 1 Sept 16]

2016-09-01

"To remain unconscious of being is to be trapped within an ego-driven
wasteland of conflict, strife, and fear that only seems customary
because we have been brainwashed into a
state of suspended disbelief where a shocking amount of hate,
dishonesty, ignorance, and greed are viewed as normal and sane. But they
are not sane, not even close to being sane. In fact, nothing could be
less sane and unreal than what we human beings call reality. By clinging
to what we know and believe, we are held captive by the movement of our
conditioned thinking and imagination, all the while believing that we
are perfectly rational and sane. We therefore continue to justify the
reality of what causes us, as well as others, immeasurable amounts of
pain and suffering. Deep down we all suspect that something is very
wrong with the way we perceive life but we try very, very hard not to
notice it. And the way we remain blind to our frightful condition is
through an obsessive and pathological denial of being, as if some
dreadful fate would overcome us if we were to face the pure light of
Truth and lay bare our fearful clinging to illusion. It is within the
dimension of being that Truth reveals itself."
~ Adyashanti, in, The Way of Liberation